Ahead of their maiden headline tour, we caught up with council punks, The Dunts. The punchy 4-piece recently released their single "Birds and the Beez" to much acclaim. No longer are they Scotland's best kept secret...
Q. How’d the single launch for “Birds and the Beez” go in London?
The gig went really well, it was our second time playing down there. We have had a few friends and family come with us both times so its felt really special on both occasions. It was also good to play some new faces as well.
Q. How has the emerging Glasgow scene inspired you? Has the rise of Baby Strange been a catalyst?
The scene at the moment in Glasgow is unreal. Baby Strange are definitely a big influence on all of us, and everyone else associated with it. One of our breaks was playing their club night Club Sabbath. From there we made friends with lots of other bands through Control Social Club and it seems to be getting stronger and stronger by the day.
Q. Sticking with Baby Strange, I understand they’ve produced a few tracks for you - where did that relationship start?
We first started back when we played their club night but we have since became good friends with the band. We had some recordings out but after hearing Rascaltons ‘This is it’ single we knew we had to record in the same place. That place was 7 West Studios, we booked in for an EP with Chris Marshall and Johnny Madden (Baby Strange) as sound engineers and producers. We were so happy with the result we booked in again for another four tracks, one of which was Birds and the Beez.
Q. With the latest single release, is their an album on the cards for 2018?
We currently have another three tracks recorded waiting to be mixed and mastered, we can’t reveal too much more about that but we promise there we be alot more of our music out before the end of the year.
Q. How does the writing process work within The Dunts, is there a primary writer? or more of a collaboration?
Our writing process is varied, sometimes one person will try and flesh out an idea as fully as they can then they will bring it into the band to finish. Other times we will throw some ideas out and try and add to them whilst in the studio. Lyrics and melodies can come from any of us, Rab and Colin tend to run over the melodies as well till they are happy with the finished product. We feel like this give us alot more to work with if we are all involved. And of course Kyle (drummer) plays whatever he feels suits the song at the time and this will evolve over time as we grow as a band.
Q. As a band making great strides, what advice would you give other kids at school looking to start a band?
The main thing is finding people you have good chemistry with. We feel that because we are all close friends outside the band then the whole experience means a lot more. As well as that, practicing at least twice a week keeps you in a good routine and has always, from our own experience, allowed for us to prepare for whatever we have coming up.
Q. If you were curating a festival stage - who would make the cut?
Our own ideal festival stage would feature us playing with all of our close friends. Bands playing would be the following; Rascalton, Heavy Rapids, Sway, Pleasure Heads and Voodoos. With regards to running order, there’s a lot of love from us for all the bands mentioned so who knows. We’d be on last though, sorry lads!
Q. On that point, favourite Musical decade and why?
This ones probably a bit of a mix for each of us. Rab and David would probably go for 90s/00s, Colin has a big thing for 60s music and Kyle goes to Art School so he only listens to avant garde 1930’s jazz ensembles. Sometimes he shows up to Rabs flat with this weird projector thing and when he turns it on it projects a hologram of Django Reinhardt out into the room and he plays Minor Swing over and over again. It’s pretty weird, but it feels like he’s actually there. We’ve tried to stop Kyle doing this, but he gets extremely angry and starts wrecking the gaff if we try to turn the Django Reinhardt hologram off. Think he said he bought it from Argos if anyone is curious.
Q. What you watching on Netflix?
Trailer Park Boys, Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Archer, Happy, we would also recommend Top 10 Secrets and Mysteries.
Q. Have you ever played Monopoly Deal? If not, why not?
We haven't played this yet but we will give it a go next time we are on the road. We have been making use of David’s Nintendo switch so we have been playing alot of Worms, Fifa and Rocket League.
The Dunts are about to hit road, make sure you don't miss out!! Get your tickets here Edinburgh/Manchester/Sheffield/Newcastle/Glasgow
The Dunts:
Rab, David, Kyle & Colin
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